The number of holiday homes in Santa Cruz de Tenerife It is more than triple at this time that of those dedicated to long-term rentals. Specifically, the main platforms They offer 600 options to hire an apartment or a house for a short period of time in the center of the Tenerife capital and the neighborhoods, for only 172 for a conventional lease. The search for a roof is so complicated for residents without sufficient financial resources to face a mortgage or a high rent that there is only one option for 500 euros – a 40 square meter apartment in the María Jiménez neighborhood – and two for 600 euros. –one apartment in the Salamanca neighborhood and another in Cueva Bermeja–. The rest exceeds 600 euros and the average for a house with two bedrooms is 700 euros per month.
Tenerife property platform Cancasa has more info.
The housing crisis that it suffers Canary Islands It worsens without anyone remedying it. Prices continue to rise and the possibility of finding an option at a reasonable cost becomes impossible. At the same time, more and more Tenerife residents are joining the very long waiting line for a home, while visitors see the options of finding a room or a complete house for a few days, a few weeks or even several months outside the hotels and resorts increasing. tourist apartments.
The data is devastating. According to a study released last summer, long-term rental prices increased 14 times more than salaries in the last 10 years in the Islands, making access to housing difficult, especially for the most vulnerable groups. The study details that the cost of rentals has increased by 85% since 2012 in the Archipelago, that is, the price for each square meter has gone from 6.06 euros to more than 11 in just a decade. In the last year alone, rents have skyrocketed almost 17% in the Islands. The same has not happened with salaries, which have barely risen 6%, so the gap between income and income is growing.
The factors of a crisis
Real estate agents assure that the incidence of the proliferation of tourist homes influences this problem. The average price per day for a two or three-bedroom vacation rental apartment in the center of Santa Cruz is currently around 70 euros. If an owner manages to keep it occupied for only half the month, he would earn 1,050 euros, at least 400 euros more than if he rented it for long periods. This partly explains the growth of this offer, which is even greater if the clandestine market options are added.
But there are more factors. Experts highlight the failure of the entry into force of the new housing law last May, which has had an effect opposite to that intended, and the lack of means to control irregular supply. Chema Blanco, a real estate agent who works in Tenerife, assures that “the market has become a jungle” and that he is aware of the existence of vacation rentals in garages converted into substandard housing, trailers and rooftops with tents. There are even boats that are rented for short periods at very high prices, such as two yachts docked in the Port of Santa Cruz for more than 450 euros per day.
Ciro Machado, manager of Don Piso on the Island, emphasizes that the new regulations approved by the central government “scare away owners” when it comes to renting their homes for long periods. “It was created to end the problem but in practice it has made it worse,” he details. «The legal uncertainty that the new law has created and the fact that it opens the door for a tenant to go two years without paying if they declare themselves in a vulnerable situation has led the owners to switch to tourist rentals. In this way, the supply of conventional rentals falls, the list of applicants is growing and, as a consequence, prices skyrocket,” he says.
The application of the housing law has also been rejected by some autonomous communities and does not affect vacation rentals, which according to the latest official figures provided by the island administrations is reaching an extraordinary dimension. According to the statistics of Government of the Canary Islands and the CouncilIn Tenerife there were 17,000 holiday homes in April, which are concentrated in the most touristic municipalities but are also growing in others such as the capital itself. The expansion in Santa Cruz has been such that multiple offers can be found in neighborhoods far from the city center such as San Matías and Santa Maria del Mar.
Failure of the housing law
Chema Blanco agrees with Ciro Machado that the housing law “has failed” in the objectives for which it was proposed: to facilitate the rental of housing for families with few resources. «Given these regulations, the owner prefers to sell or dedicate himself to vacation rentals because he considers them to be the most profitable and safe options. Some even opt for long-term rentals but per room. I have seen rooms rented on the Island for 500 euros,” he explains.
Blanco highlights that those who bear the worst part are Tenerife residents with limited economic resources and those who bear the best part are nationals or foreigners who do have resources. «The situation not only benefits visitors who come on vacation and look for accommodation on their own, outside of hotels and apartments. Also to those who decide to spend a period of six months or a year on the Island, for personal or work reasons. They arrive with significant savings and pay the entire vacation rental in advance, no matter how high it may seem, as is the case with digital nomads, a phenomenon that is also influencing this problem.
entire buildings
All these conditions mean, according to this real estate agent, that some investors are even buying entire buildings in Tenerife – especially in municipalities like Puerto de la Cruz – to allocate all the apartments to tourist rentals. Both Chema Blanco and Ciro Machado make it clear that the main solutions “will take time to arrive”, which is why they foresee a serious “long-term” social problem that affects an essential good such as housing. «We have not built officially protected houses that can be offered at reduced prices for 20 years. And that deficit is not going to be resolved overnight,” warns Machado.
Chema Blanco believes that the solutions also involve “new regulation.” «Given the pernicious effects of the new housing law, it will be necessary to create other regulations to put an end to the current chaos, as well as increase the means of control and, something very important, build more social housing to cover the deficit of so many years without works. », he concludes.
